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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 27 May 1891, Page 3

LieatColonet Btitts, who on being retired from the oommand of the Wellington district was gazetted to a full Coloneloy on the Honorary Unattached List, New Zealand Volunteers, has addressed the following letftr to the Hon the Minister of Defence:--••WelUngton,22nd May, 1891. Sir- With •referenoe to a recent Sasette notioo making me a Colonel on tbe Honorary Unattached List, 1 beg to inform you that T have no desire for suoh promotion, and aooording to No, 286 of the volunteer Regulations. 1888, I do not tbink I should be, plaoed upon that lißt against my wishes. I also maintain that paragraphs 284 to 288 of the regulations reft? to volopteers only, and not to officers on the ''xftUltl* list. I have therefore the honour to request tbat so, far aB my name is concerned the Gazette notioe may^be can- • celled. -I have the honour, &o„ J. G. Butts, Meut-Oolonel N,Z. Militia." Balaclava celebrates this year the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the oldest monitory in Russia. This matter is of interest to Englishmen, for during the siege- of Sebastopol it was ■oooupied by the Allies, but the life of the • monks and the religious servioe was not •interrupted; only the inmates were not allowed to cdmmunioate with the Russians, or to leave their walls. It was in 891 that a Greek ship was nearly foundering on Balaolava, and ths sailors prayed to Bt, George in their distress, and suddenly, so runs the legend, the saint on horseback, and in full armour, appeared on the rooki, Tbe stoim oeased, and tbe sailors . swam to the shore, and out ot gratitude to their deliverer determined to fonnd a temple bere, This was done, and some of their number remained there as hermits, and so founded tbe monastery whioh tbia year oele- . brates its thousandth birthday. It haß seen many vioiesitudes through Tartar and Mohammedan rale, but has always remained Christian. The Greymouth correspondent of the Ohristohtiroh'iVM* writes:— Tim^s are hard with some people, and many poor families | are likely 'to fare badly during the coming •severe winter. Warmth is a necessity, but • to attain this money bas tobe found with ■ whioh to prooure ooals; these, with shame be it tedd, are 21s per ton, or. by taking a quarter of a ton, as the poorer olasseß do, they, are oharged 6e ?dr-at the rate of 22s pit- ton,--' I Maintaid >\t ia a disgrace that with the mines at bur very doors, bo to speak, local consumers should have to pay enoh «m 'extortionate price. It is not surprising, under these otroumstanoeß, to hear the monopoly denounced on all hands, and the earnest hope and wish expressed that '.something may soon be done to break it down. The same remark applies to the butohers and the bakers,' who agree in keep•law*Up'the price of meat and bread, with the n>-rilt' that Greymouth is one of the Mftito exwasivfe tim tothe colony to live '■■'. in, and Wy' a pofrfaiaily Buffers privations